Hong Kong’s innovators are making waves. So why is it so slow with its smart city plans? The taxi drivers’ frustration with competition from the popular ride-hailing platform has festered for years, but the angry confrontation was also a sign of what was holding Hong Kong back in the global race to embrace technology. An entrenched preference for sticking to established norms and the reluctance to embrace new ideas prevented the city from becoming “smarter”, said Pong, an information security management and computer forensics specialist who chairs the IT governance committee of the Smart City Consortium, a body helping the government. Experts said that while Hong Kong had no shortage of tech inventors and innovators, it was hard to commercialise their products and it was no surprise that the city fell back in global rankings for smart city development. Hong Kong slipped a spot from last year to rank 20th in the Smart City Index 2024 released by Swiss business school the Institute for Management Development in April. Singapore, in fifth place, was Asia’s smartest city, while Shanghai came in 19th. The annual index is based on feedback from 120 people in each city who were asked about the impact of technology in 15 areas of life, including affordable housing, healthcare and employment, and their level of comfort with tech issues such as face recognition and electronic payments. Hong Kong did well in internet speed and reliability, online purchasing of tickets to shows and museums and online access to job opportunities. But it scored lowest for car-sharing and bicycle-hiring services. Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei all fared better. Hong Kong also rated poorly for online reporting of city maintenance problems. Lawmaker Duncan Chiu, who represents the innovation and technology sector, said Hong Kong performed well in terms of digital infrastructure and 5G connectivity even in rural areas, but had to address shortcomings in implementing innovative ideas and technology. He said the economic downturn following the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in a lag in the local investment market and decreased foreign investment too. He said Hong Kong’s innovators had to demonstrate more ways technology could be applied by both the private and public sectors, and ordinary residents. Turning gold medals into products Two weeks after the latest smart city index was announced, Hong Kong performed well at the 49th International Exhibition of Inventions held from April 17 to 21 in Geneva, Switzerland. The city’s delegation of nearly 700 representatives from 40 organisations, ranging from schools to universities, research and development centres, research laboratories, technology companies and government departments, won a record number of more than 350 prizes, including six Special Awards, 28 Gold Medals with Congratulations of Jury and 114 Gold Medals. The government’s research and development (R&D) arm, the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) won 23 awards. The gold medal winners included a document processor powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that can recognise images and different printed or handwritten languages, including Chinese and English. Arvin Tang Wai-kai, ASTRI’s director of multimedia systems and analytics, said the system would help organisations that process large volumes of complex documents, such as banks, insurance companies and the Inland Revenue Department. Another gold-medal winner was an image fusion technology using sensors that can improve the quality of photographs shot in poor light, glaring or foggy conditions. It combines normal photography with images captured by infrared cameras. ASTRI’s advanced electronic components and systems senior engineer Allen Wang Zhihan said the system had the potential to be used with driverless vehicles moving in darkness or fog, and rescue missions. This application has also yet to be commercialised. Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said local start-ups had what it takes in terms of R&D and relied mainly on fundraising to keep going. The challenge now was for the government to speed up attracting overseas enterprises to enrich the ecosystem for the long run. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3267295/hong-kongs-innovators-are-making-waves-so-why-it-so-slow-its-smart-city-plans (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post